This proposal requests funds to purchase a Zeiss Spinning Disc/LSM 700 Point Scanning Confocal Microscope Combination System for the Bioimaging Core Facility of the Burnett School Biomedical Sciences in the newly-formed College of Medicine at University of Central Florida (UCF). The system includes an integrated Zeiss LSM 700 laser scanning confocal microscope, with a cell-observer platform and a CSU-X1 spinning disc system. This instrument allows users to perform live cell time-lapse imaging, 3D imaging, multiple fluorescence and colocalization analyses, nuclear localization, emission fingerprinting, DIC, FRAP, FLIP, photoactivation and photoconversion experiments. The unique capabilities of LSM 700 include variable secondary dichroic beam splitter, FixGate main beam splitter, laser life extender, and integrated software that controls data acquisition and analysis of multiple parameters. There is a critical need for this instrument because there is only one common use confocal microscope available at UCF and in the Central Florida area. It is a Zeiss LSM 510 scanning confocal microscope that was purchased in 2000 and is the sole instrument in the existing Bioimaging Core. This microscope stand has become obsolete and will not be supported by a Zeiss service contract as of September 2009. Furthermore, the current system does not have the capability of live cell imaging or UV excitation of nuclear dyes such as DAPI. The 8 major users of this proposal have 12 NIH funded R01 projects (2 additional R01 will begin in 2009) focused on neurobiology, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and cancer. Each award has experiments that require confocal and live imaging. In addition, there are 4 minor users who have NIH-funded projects. The purchase of the microscope system will help sustain existing NIH-funded research programs and will help recruit additional outstanding biomedical researchers. This will help the unit fulfill its strategic goal defined in 2003 to recruit 34 new faculty to build a well-funded nationally recognized biomedical research program at UCF.